Description

by Daniel Cruson

This volume in the Arcadia Press’ series, Images of America, presents 288 Photographic images of Newtown showing how it looked from 1870, just after the Civil War, up to the Second World War, just before Newtown began to make it’s dramatic change to a large suburban town. Its captions give a concise history of some of Newtown’s most important landmarks, both those that are still to be seen and visited and many that are no longer in existence.

The book also contains a special section on the five railroads that ran through Newtown at the turn of the century and the six depots that served those lines.

Another special section is devoted to the War Maneuvers in 1912 during which 10,000 army and militia units descended on Newtown as half of them tried to capture the reservoirs that were vital to New York and the other half tried to stop them. The maneuvers climaxed with pitched battles on Cole’s Hill just west of the village and Mount Pleasant. All of the latest technology was being displayed from machine guns to spotting aircraft and Newtown experienced one of the most exciting weeks of its history, and it has been reproduced here for everyone to enjoy again.